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16 - Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, The Treasure Hunt, Flint's pointer, Jim said
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Speaker 1: silver when we were alone, if I saved your life,
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Speaker 1: you've saved mine, and I'll not forget it. I seen
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Speaker 1: the doctor waving you to run for it with the
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Speaker 1: tail of my eye. I did, and I seen you
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Speaker 1: say no as plain as hearing. Jim, that's one to you.
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Speaker 1: This is the first clint of hope I had since
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Speaker 1: the tack failed, and I owe it to you. And now, Jim,
0:36
Speaker 1: we're to go in for this treasure hunting. We'd sealed
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Speaker 1: orders too, and I don't like it. And you and
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Speaker 1: me must stick close back to back like and we'll
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Speaker 1: save our necks in spite of fat and fortune. Just
0:54
Speaker 1: then a man hailed us from the fire that breakfast
0:56
Speaker 1: was ready, and we were soon seated here and there
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Speaker 1: about the sand over biscuit and fried junk. They had
1:03
Speaker 1: lighted a fire fit to roast an ox, and it
1:07
Speaker 1: was now grown so hot that they could only approach
1:10
Speaker 1: it from the windward, and even there not without precaution.
1:14
Speaker 1: In the same wasteful spirit they had cooked I suppose
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Speaker 1: three times more than we could eat. And one of them,
1:21
Speaker 1: with an empty laugh, threw what was left into the fire,
1:24
Speaker 1: which blazed and roared again over this unusual fuel. I
1:29
Speaker 1: never in my life saw men so careless of the morrow.
1:33
Speaker 1: Hand to mouth is the only word that can describe
1:36
Speaker 1: their way of doing, and what with wasted food and
1:39
Speaker 1: sleeping sentries. Though they were bold enough for a brush
1:43
Speaker 1: and be done with it, I could see their entire
1:46
Speaker 1: unfitness for anything like a prolonged campaign. Even Silver, eating
1:51
Speaker 1: away with Captain flint upon his shoulder, had not a
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Speaker 1: word of blame for their recklessness. And this the more
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Speaker 1: surprised me, for I thought he had never showed himself
2:02
Speaker 1: so cunning as he did. Then, oh, mates, said he,
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Speaker 1: it's luck you have barbecue to think for you with
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Speaker 1: this here head, I got, Why what did I did?
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Speaker 1: Sure enough? They have the ship where they have it?
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Speaker 1: I don't know yet, but once we hit the treasurer
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Speaker 1: we'll have to jump about and find and then, Mates,
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Speaker 1: it's that as the boats, I reckon as the upper
2:28
Speaker 1: And that's he kept running on with his mouth full
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Speaker 1: of the hot bacon. Last he restored their hope and confidence,
2:36
Speaker 1: and I, more than suspect, repaired his own. At the
2:39
Speaker 1: same time. As for hostage, he continued that's my last talk.
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Speaker 1: I guess with them. He loves so dear. We've got
2:49
Speaker 1: my piece of news, and thank you to him for that.
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Speaker 1: But it's over and done. I'll take him in a
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Speaker 1: line when we go treasure hunting, for we'll keep them
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Speaker 1: like so much old in case of accident. You mark
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Speaker 1: in the meantime, whence we got the ship and treasure
3:05
Speaker 1: both and off to sea like jolly companions. Wh then
3:10
Speaker 1: we'll talk mister Orkins over we will. It will give
3:14
Speaker 1: him his share, to be sure, for all his kindness,
3:17
Speaker 1: it was no wonder the men were in good humor.
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Speaker 1: Now for my part, I was horribly cast down. Should
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Speaker 1: the scheme he now sketched prove feasible, silver already doubly
3:29
Speaker 1: a traitor would not hesitate to adopt it. He had
3:33
Speaker 1: still a foot in either camp, and there was no
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Speaker 1: doubt he would prefer wealth and freedom with the pirates
3:39
Speaker 1: to a bear escape from hanging, which was the best
3:42
Speaker 1: he had to hope on our side. Nay, and even
3:45
Speaker 1: if things fell out that he was forced to keep
3:47
Speaker 1: his faith with doctor Livesey, even then, what danger lay
3:52
Speaker 1: before us? What a moment that would be when the
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Speaker 1: suspicions of his followers turned to certainty, and he and
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Speaker 1: I should have to fight for dear life, he a
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Speaker 1: cripple and I a boy, against five strong and active seamen.
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Speaker 1: Add to this double apprehension the mystery that still hung
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Speaker 1: over the behavior of my friends, their unexplained desertion of
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Speaker 1: the stockade, their inexplicable session of the chart, or harder
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Speaker 1: still to understand the doctor's last warning to Silver, look
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Speaker 1: out for squalls when you find it, and you will
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Speaker 1: readily believe how little taste I found in my breakfast,
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Speaker 1: and with how uneasy a heart I set forth behind
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Speaker 1: my captors on the quest for treasure. We made a
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Speaker 1: curious figure had any one been there to see us,
4:43
Speaker 1: all in soiled sailor clothes, and all but me armed
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Speaker 1: to the teeth. Silver had two guns slung about him,
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Speaker 1: one before and one behind, besides the great cutlass at
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Speaker 1: his waist, and a pistol in each pocket of his
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Speaker 1: square tailed coat. To complete his strange appearance, Captain Flint
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Speaker 1: sat perched upon his shoulder and gabbled odds and ends
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Speaker 1: of purposeless sea talk. I had a line about my waist,
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Speaker 1: and followed obediently after the sea cook, who held the
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Speaker 1: loose end of the rope, now in his free hand,
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Speaker 1: now between his powerful teeth. For all the world I
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Speaker 1: was led like a dancing bear. The other men were
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Speaker 1: variously burdened, some carrying picks and shovels, for that had
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Speaker 1: been the very first necessary They brought ashore from the Hispaniola,
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Speaker 1: others laden with pork, bread and brandy for the midday meal.
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Speaker 1: All the stores I observed came from our stock. I
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Speaker 1: could see the truth of Silver's words the night before.
5:45
Speaker 1: Had he not struck a bargain with the doctor, he
5:48
Speaker 1: and his mutineers, deserted by the ship must have been
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Speaker 1: driven to subsist on clear water, and the proceeds of
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Speaker 1: their hunting water would have been little to their taste.
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Speaker 1: A sailor is not usually a good shot, and besides
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Speaker 1: all that, when they were so short of eatables, it
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Speaker 1: was not likely they would be very flush of powder. Well.
6:09
Speaker 1: Thus equipped, we all set out, even the fellow with
6:12
Speaker 1: the broken head, who should certainly have kept in shadow,
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Speaker 1: and straggled one after another to the beach where the
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Speaker 1: two gigs awaited us. Even these bore trace of the
6:22
Speaker 1: drunken folly of the pirates. One in a broken thwart,
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Speaker 1: and both in their muddied and unbailed condition, both were
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Speaker 1: to be carried along with us for the sake of safety.
6:34
Speaker 1: And so, with our numbers divided between them, we set
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Speaker 1: forth upon the bosom of the anchorage. As we pulled across,
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Speaker 1: there was some discussion on the chart. The red cross
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Speaker 1: was of course far too large to be a guide,
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Speaker 1: and the terms of the note on the back, as
6:51
Speaker 1: you will hear, admitted of some ambiguity they ran. The
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Speaker 1: reader may remember thus tall true spyglass shoulder bearing a
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Speaker 1: point to the n of nne skeleton island e s
7:08
Speaker 1: e and by e ten feet a tall tree was
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Speaker 1: thus the principal mark. Now right before us. The anchorage
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Speaker 1: was bounded by a plateau from two to three hundred
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Speaker 1: feet high, adjoining on the north and sloping southern shoulder
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Speaker 1: of the Spyglass, and rising again toward the south into
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Speaker 1: the rough cliffy eminence called the Mizzenmast Hill. The top
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Speaker 1: of the plateau was dotted thickly with pine trees of
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Speaker 1: varying height. Here and there one of a different species
7:40
Speaker 1: rose forty or fifty feet clear above its neighbours. And
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Speaker 1: which of these was the particular tall tree of Captain
7:47
Speaker 1: Flint could only be decided on the spot and by
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Speaker 1: the readings of the compass. Yet although that was the case,
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Speaker 1: every man on board the boats had picked a favorite
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Speaker 1: of his own. Air we were half way over long
8:02
Speaker 1: John alone, shrugging his shoulders and bidding them weaight till
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Speaker 1: they were there. We pulled easily, by Silver's directions not
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Speaker 1: to weary the hands prematurely, and after quite a long passage,
8:15
Speaker 1: landed at the mouth of the second river, that which
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Speaker 1: runs down a woody cleft of the spyglass. Thence bending
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Speaker 1: to our left, we began to ascend the slope towards
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Speaker 1: the plateau. At the very outset, heavy miry ground and
8:30
Speaker 1: a matted marsh vegetation greatly delayed our progress. But by
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Speaker 1: little and little the hill began to steepen and become
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Speaker 1: stony underfoot, and the wood to change its character and
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Speaker 1: to grow in a more open order. It was indeed
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Speaker 1: a most pleasant portion of the island that we were
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Speaker 1: now approaching. A heavy scented broom, and many flowering shrubs
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Speaker 1: had almost taken the place of grass. Thickets of green
8:58
Speaker 1: nutmeg trees were dotted here and there with the red
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Speaker 1: columns and the broad shadow of the pines, and the
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Speaker 1: first mingled their spice with the aroma of the others.
9:08
Speaker 1: The air, besides, was fresh and stirring, and this under
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Speaker 1: the sheer sunbeams, was a wonderful refreshment to our senses.
9:16
Speaker 1: The party spread itself abroad in a fan shape, shouting
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Speaker 1: and leaping to and fro about the center, and a
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Speaker 1: good way behind the rest Silver and I followed, I
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Speaker 1: tethered by my rope, he plowing with deep pants among
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Speaker 1: the sliding gravel. From time to time, indeed, I had
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Speaker 1: to lend him a hand, or he must have missed
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Speaker 1: his footing and fallen backward down the hill. We had
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Speaker 1: thus proceeded for about half a mile and were approaching
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Speaker 1: the brow of the plateau when the man upon the
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Speaker 1: farthest left began to cry aloud, as if in terror.
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Speaker 1: Shout after shout came from him, and the others began
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Speaker 1: to run in his direction. He can't have found the treasure,
10:00
Speaker 1: said old Morgan, hurrying past us from the right, for
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Speaker 1: that's cleaner top. Indeed, as we found when we also
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Speaker 1: reached the spot, it was something very different at the
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Speaker 1: foot of a pretty big pine and involved in deep creeper,
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Speaker 1: which had even partly lifted some of the smaller bones.
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Speaker 1: A human skeleton lay with a few shreds of clothing
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Speaker 1: on the ground. I believe a chill struck for a
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Speaker 1: moment to every heart. He was a seaman, said George Merry,
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Speaker 1: who bolder than the rest, had gone up close and
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Speaker 1: was examining the rags of clothing. Leastways, this is good
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Speaker 1: sea cloth, Aye, aye, said silver, like enough, you wouldn't
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Speaker 1: look to find a bishop here, I reckon, But what
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Speaker 1: sort of a way is that for bones? Tolly tain't
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Speaker 1: in nature. Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible
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Speaker 1: to fancy that the body was in a natural position
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Speaker 1: but for some disarray, the work perhaps of the birds
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Speaker 1: that had fed upon him, or the slow growing creeper
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Speaker 1: that had gradually enveloped his remains. The man lay perfectly straight,
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Speaker 1: his feet pointing in one direction, his hands raised above
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Speaker 1: his head like a diver's, pointing directly in the opposite.
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Speaker 1: I've taken a notion into my old numbskull, observed silver.
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Speaker 1: Here's the compass. There's the tip top point of skeleton,
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Speaker 1: an island sticking out like a tooth. Just take a
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Speaker 1: bearing will yer along the line of them bones. It
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Speaker 1: was done. The body pointed straight in the direction of
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Speaker 1: the island, and the compass read duly east southeast by east.
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Speaker 1: I thought, so, cried the cook. This here is a
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Speaker 1: pointer right up there is our loin for the pole
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Speaker 1: star and the jolly dollars. But boy, thunder, if it
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Speaker 1: don't make me cold inside to think of flint. This
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Speaker 1: is one of his jokes. And no mistake him in
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Speaker 1: these six was alone here. He killed them, every man,
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Speaker 1: and this one he all here and laid down by
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Speaker 1: the compass, shivering. My timbers their long bones, and the
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Speaker 1: air has been yellow. Aye, that would be allered. Dice
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Speaker 1: you mind, aler, dice Tom Morgan Aye, Aye, returned Morgan.
12:40
Speaker 1: I mind him. He owed me money, he did, and
12:44
Speaker 1: he took my knife ashore with him. Speaking of knives,
12:48
Speaker 1: said another, Why don't we find isn't lying around? Flint
12:52
Speaker 1: worked the man to pick a seaman's pocket, and the birds,
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Speaker 1: I guess would leave it be bye the poor. And
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Speaker 1: that's true, cried Silver. There ain't a thing left here,
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Speaker 1: said Mary, still feeling round among the bones. Not a copper,
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Speaker 1: do it, nor a backy box. It don't look natural
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Speaker 1: to me, No, boy, gomet don't agreed. Silver, not natural
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Speaker 1: nor not nice, says you, great guns mess meats. But
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Speaker 1: if Flint was living, this would be a hot spot
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Speaker 1: for you and me. Six they were, and six are
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Speaker 1: a wee and bones is what they are. Now. I
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Speaker 1: saw him dead with these here deadlights, said Morgan. Billy
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Speaker 1: took me in there he laid with penny pieces on
13:44
Speaker 1: his eyes. Dead. Aye, sure enough he's dead and gone below,
13:50
Speaker 1: said the fellow with the bandage. But if ever spirit walked,
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Speaker 1: it would be Flint's dear Harby. He died bad, did Flint? Aye?
13:59
Speaker 1: That he did observed another. Now we raged, and now
14:03
Speaker 1: he hollered for the rum, and now we sang. Fifteen
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Speaker 1: men were his only song mates. And I tell you true,
14:11
Speaker 1: I never rightly liked to hear it, since it was
14:14
Speaker 1: may not and the windy was open. And I hear
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Speaker 1: that old song are coming out as clear as clear,
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Speaker 1: and the death haul on the man already come come,
14:27
Speaker 1: said Silver, stole this tark. He's dead and he don't
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Speaker 1: walk that I know, least the ways he won't walk.
14:35
Speaker 1: By day you made later that care killed a cat
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Speaker 1: fetch a head for the doubloons. We started, certainly, but
14:44
Speaker 1: in spite of the hot sun and the staring daylight,
14:48
Speaker 1: the pirates no longer ran separate and shouting through the wood,
14:52
Speaker 1: but kept side by side and spoke with bated breath.
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Speaker 1: The terror of the dead buccaneer had fallen their spirits.
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Speaker 1: End of chapter thirty one, Chapter thirty two, The treasure
15:09
Speaker 1: Hunt the voice among the trees. Partly from the damping
15:15
Speaker 1: influence of this alarm, partly to rest Silver and the
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Speaker 1: sick folk. The whole party sat down as soon as
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Speaker 1: they had gained the brow of the ascent, the plateau
15:25
Speaker 1: being somewhat tilted toward the west. This spot on which
15:28
Speaker 1: we had paused, commanded a wide prospect on either hand
15:33
Speaker 1: before us, over the tree tops, we held the cape
15:36
Speaker 1: of the woods, fringed with surf. Behind. We not only
15:40
Speaker 1: looked down upon the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but saw
15:44
Speaker 1: clear across the spit and the eastern lowlands, a great
15:48
Speaker 1: field of open sea upon the east sheer. Above us
15:52
Speaker 1: rose the spyglass, here dotted with single pines, there black
15:57
Speaker 1: with precipices. There was no but that of the distant
16:01
Speaker 1: breakers mounting from all around, and the chirp of countless
16:06
Speaker 1: insects in the brush. Not a man, not a sail
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Speaker 1: on the sea. The very largeness of the view increased
16:14
Speaker 1: the sense of solitude. Silver, as he sat, took certain
16:19
Speaker 1: bearings with his compass. There are three tall trees, said he,
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Speaker 1: about in the right lome from Skelleton Neyland, spy glass shoulder.
16:31
Speaker 1: I take it means that lure point there. It's child's plate,
16:36
Speaker 1: a foind the stuff. Now if half a mint to
16:39
Speaker 1: dine first. I don't feel sharp, growled Morgan, thinking a flint.
16:46
Speaker 1: I think it were as done me. Well, MYI, sir,
16:51
Speaker 1: you praise your stars. He's dead, said Silver. He was
16:56
Speaker 1: an ugly devil, cried a third pirate with a shudder.
17:00
Speaker 1: That blew in the face too. That was how the
17:03
Speaker 1: rum took him, added Merry Blue. Woa, I reckon, he
17:08
Speaker 1: was blue. That's a true word. Ever since they had
17:12
Speaker 1: found the skeleton and got upon this train of thought,
17:15
Speaker 1: they had spoken lower and lower, and they had almost
17:19
Speaker 1: got to whispering by now, so that the sound of
17:22
Speaker 1: their talk hardly interrupted the silence of the wood. All
17:26
Speaker 1: of a sudden, out of the middle of the trees
17:29
Speaker 1: in front of us. A thin, high trembling voice struck
17:34
Speaker 1: up the well known air and words fifty men on
17:38
Speaker 1: the dead man's chest, Yo, ho ho, and about twelve rum.
17:46
Speaker 1: I never have seen men more dreadfully affected than the pirates.
17:51
Speaker 1: The color went from their six faces like enchantment. Some
17:55
Speaker 1: leaped to their feet, some clawed hold of others. Morgan
17:59
Speaker 1: groveled on the ground. It flint py, cried Mary. The
18:04
Speaker 1: song had stopped as suddenly as it began broken off,
18:08
Speaker 1: you would have said, in the middle of a note,
18:11
Speaker 1: as though someone had laid his hand upon the singer's mouth.
18:15
Speaker 1: Coming so far through the clear and sunny atmosphere among
18:19
Speaker 1: the green tree tops, I thought it had sounded airily
18:22
Speaker 1: and sweetly. And the effect on my companions was the
18:25
Speaker 1: stranger come, said Silver, struggling with his ashen lips to
18:30
Speaker 1: get the word out. That won't do stand by to
18:34
Speaker 1: go a belt. This is a room star. And I
18:37
Speaker 1: can't name the voice, but it's someone's Skylarkin, someone that's
18:43
Speaker 1: flesh and blurred. And you may laid that his courage
18:47
Speaker 1: had come back as he spoke, and some of the
18:50
Speaker 1: color to his face along with it. Already the others
18:53
Speaker 1: had began to lend an ear to this encouragement, and
18:56
Speaker 1: were coming a little to themselves when the same voice
19:00
Speaker 1: broke out again, not this time singing, but in a faint,
19:04
Speaker 1: distant hail that echoed yet fainter among the clefts of
19:08
Speaker 1: the spyglass.
19:10
Speaker 2: Darby McGraw, it wailed, for that is the word that
19:15
Speaker 2: best describes the sound, Darby McGraw, Darby McGraw.
19:22
Speaker 1: Again and again and again, and then rising a little higher,
19:26
Speaker 1: and with an oath that I leave out fetch half
19:29
Speaker 1: the rum Darby. The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground,
19:34
Speaker 1: their eyes starting from their heads. Long after the voice
19:38
Speaker 1: had died away, they still stared in silence, dreadfully before them.
19:44
Speaker 1: That fixes it gasped one. Let's go They was his
19:49
Speaker 1: last words, moaned Morgan, his last words. Above board, Dick
19:54
Speaker 1: had his bible out and was praying volubly. He had
19:58
Speaker 1: been well brought up, had Dick. Before he had come
20:01
Speaker 1: to sea and fell among bad companions. Still silver was unconquered.
20:06
Speaker 1: I could hear his teeth rattle in his head, but
20:09
Speaker 1: he had not surrendered. Nobody in this ere island ever
20:13
Speaker 1: heard of Daby. He muttered not one but us that's here,
20:18
Speaker 1: and then making a great effort shipmates, he cried, O
20:23
Speaker 1: mere to get that stuff, and I'll not be beat
20:25
Speaker 1: by man nor devil. I never was feared of flint
20:29
Speaker 1: in his life, and by their powers, I'll face him dead.
20:34
Speaker 1: There's seven hundred thousand pounds, not a quarter of a
20:37
Speaker 1: mile from here. When did ever a gentleman of fortune
20:41
Speaker 1: show his stirr into that much dollars for a boozy
20:44
Speaker 1: old seaman with a blue mug, and him dead too?
20:48
Speaker 1: But there was no sign of reawakening courage in his followers,
20:52
Speaker 1: rather indeed of growing terror at the irreverence of his words.
20:57
Speaker 1: Belay there, John said, Mary, don't you cross a spirit?
21:01
Speaker 1: And the rest were all too terrified to reply. They
21:05
Speaker 1: would have run away severally had they dared, but fear
21:08
Speaker 1: kept them together and kept them close to John, as
21:12
Speaker 1: if his daring helped them. He, on his part, had
21:15
Speaker 1: pretty well fought his weakness down. Spirit waw may be,
21:22
Speaker 1: he said, But there's one thing not clearer than me.
21:25
Speaker 1: There was an echo, No no mine ever seen a
21:30
Speaker 1: spirit wear shadow? Well? Then was he doing with an echo?
21:34
Speaker 1: To whom I should like to know? That a't inneature, Sharlie.
21:40
Speaker 1: This argument seemed weak enough to me, but you can
21:43
Speaker 1: never tell what will affect the superstitious. And to my worry,
21:48
Speaker 1: George Merry was greatly relieved. Well that's so, he said,
21:54
Speaker 1: you've had upon your shoulders, John, And no mistake, boutship mates,
22:00
Speaker 1: This here crew is on a wrong tack. I do believe,
22:03
Speaker 1: and you come to think on it. It was like
22:06
Speaker 1: Flint's voice, I grant you, but not just so clear
22:10
Speaker 1: away like it. After all, it was like somebody else's voice.
22:16
Speaker 1: Now it was like a boy the porors. Ben Gunn roared,
22:22
Speaker 1: silver ah, and so it were, cried Morgan, springing on
22:28
Speaker 1: his knees. Ben Gunn, it were it don't make much odds,
22:32
Speaker 1: do it, now, asked Dick. Ben Gunn's not hearing the
22:36
Speaker 1: body any more of Flint. But the older hands greeted
22:40
Speaker 1: this remark with scorn. Why nobody minds ben Gunn cried,
22:46
Speaker 1: Mary dead or alive? Nobody minds him. It was extraordinary
22:51
Speaker 1: how their spirits had returned, and how the natural color
22:55
Speaker 1: had revived in their faces. Soon they were chatting together
22:59
Speaker 1: with intervals of listening, and not long after, hearing no
23:03
Speaker 1: further sound, they shouldered the tools and set forth again,
23:07
Speaker 1: Mary walking first with Silver's compass to keep them on
23:10
Speaker 1: the right line with Skeleton Island. He had said the truth,
23:14
Speaker 1: dead or alive. Nobody minded ben Gunn. Dick alone still
23:20
Speaker 1: held his Bible and looked around him as he went
23:23
Speaker 1: with fearful glances. But he found no sympathy, and Silver
23:28
Speaker 1: even joked him on his precautions. Oh he told you,
23:32
Speaker 1: said he, Oh, he told you you had spoiled your boyble.
23:36
Speaker 1: If it ain't no good to swear, boy, what you
23:39
Speaker 1: suppose a spirit will give for it? Not that? And
23:43
Speaker 1: he snapped his big fingers, halting a moment on his crutch.
23:47
Speaker 1: But Dick was not to be comforted. Indeed, it was
23:50
Speaker 1: soon plain to me that the lad was falling sick,
23:54
Speaker 1: hastened by heat, exhaustion, and the shock of his alarm.
23:58
Speaker 1: The fever predicted by the doctor Livesey was evidently growing
24:02
Speaker 1: swiftly higher. It was fine open walking here upon the summit.
24:07
Speaker 1: Our way lay a little down hill, For as I
24:10
Speaker 1: have said, the plateau tilted toward the west. The pines
24:15
Speaker 1: great and small, grew wide apart, and even between the
24:18
Speaker 1: clumps of nutmeg and azalea wide open spaces, baked in
24:23
Speaker 1: the hot sunshine, Striking as we did, pretty near northwest
24:27
Speaker 1: across the island. We drew, on the one hand, even
24:30
Speaker 1: nearer under the shoulders of the spyglass, and on the
24:34
Speaker 1: other looked even wider over that western bay where I
24:38
Speaker 1: had once tossed and trembled in the coracle. The first
24:41
Speaker 1: of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearing
24:44
Speaker 1: proved the wrong one. So with the second and the third,
24:49
Speaker 1: rose nearly two hundred feet into the air above a
24:52
Speaker 1: clump of underwood, A giant of a vegetable, with a
24:56
Speaker 1: red column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow,
24:59
Speaker 1: a red in which a company could have maneuvered. It
25:03
Speaker 1: was conspicuous far to sea, both on the east and west,
25:08
Speaker 1: and might have been entered as a sailing mark upon
25:10
Speaker 1: the chart. But it was not its size that now
25:13
Speaker 1: impressed my companions. It was the knowledge that seven hundred
25:18
Speaker 1: thousand pounds in gold lay somewhere buried below its spreading shadow.
25:24
Speaker 1: The thought of the money, as they drew nearer, swallowed
25:28
Speaker 1: up their previous terrors. Their eyes burned in their heads,
25:33
Speaker 1: their feet grew speedier and lighter, their whole soul was
25:37
Speaker 1: bound up in that fortune, that whole lifetime of extravagance
25:42
Speaker 1: and pleasure that lay awaiting there for each of them.
25:46
Speaker 1: Silver hobbled, grunting on his crutch, His nostrils stood out
25:51
Speaker 1: and quivered. He cursed like a madman when the flies
25:54
Speaker 1: settled on his hot and shiny countenance. He plucked furiously
25:59
Speaker 1: at the lion that held me to him, and from
26:01
Speaker 1: time to time turned his eyes upon me with a
26:05
Speaker 1: deadly look. Certainly he took no pains to hide his thoughts,
26:09
Speaker 1: and certainly I read them like print. In the immediate
26:13
Speaker 1: nearness of the gold, all else had been forgotten. His
26:17
Speaker 1: promise and the doctor's warning were both things of the past,
26:22
Speaker 1: and I could not doubt that he hoped to seize
26:24
Speaker 1: upon the treasure find and bored the hispaniola under cover
26:28
Speaker 1: of night, cut every honest throat about that island, and
26:33
Speaker 1: sail away as he had first intended. Laden with crimes
26:37
Speaker 1: and riches. Shaken as I was with these alarms, it
26:42
Speaker 1: was hard for me to keep up with the rapid
26:44
Speaker 1: race of the treasure hunters. Now and again I stumbled.
26:48
Speaker 1: And it was then that Silver plucked so roughly at
26:51
Speaker 1: the rope and launched at me his murderous glances. Dick,
26:55
Speaker 1: who had dropped behind us and now brought up the rear,
26:59
Speaker 1: was babbling to Hi himself, both prayers and curses, as
27:02
Speaker 1: his fever kept rising. This also added to my wretchedness
27:07
Speaker 1: and to crown all. I was haunted by the thought
27:10
Speaker 1: of the tragedy that had once been acted on that plateau,
27:14
Speaker 1: when that ungodly buccaneer with the blue face, he who
27:18
Speaker 1: had died at Savannah singing and shouting for drink, had
27:21
Speaker 1: there with his own hand cut down his six accomplices.
27:26
Speaker 1: This grove that was now so peaceful, must have rung
27:29
Speaker 1: with cries, I thought, And even with the thought, I
27:33
Speaker 1: could believe I heard it ringing.
27:35
Speaker 2: Still.
27:37
Speaker 1: We were now at the margin of the thicket. Huzzah.
27:40
Speaker 1: Mates altogether shouted Mary, and the foremost broke into a run,
27:45
Speaker 1: and suddenly, not ten yards farther we beheld them stop
27:51
Speaker 1: a low cry. Arose Silver doubled his pace, digging away
27:55
Speaker 1: with the foot of his crutch like one possessed, And
27:58
Speaker 1: the next moment he and I had come also to
28:01
Speaker 1: a dead halt. Before us was a great excavation, not
28:06
Speaker 1: very recent, for the sides had fallen in and grass
28:10
Speaker 1: had sprouted on the bottom. In this were the shaft
28:13
Speaker 1: of a pick broken in two, and the boards of
28:16
Speaker 1: several packing cases strewn around. On one of these boards
28:20
Speaker 1: I saw branded with a hot iron, the name Walrus,
28:24
Speaker 1: the name of Flint's ship. All was clear to probation.
28:28
Speaker 1: The cash had been found and rifled, the seven hundred
28:32
Speaker 1: thousand pounds were gone, and of chapter thirty two